This invention relates to an electrical connector provided with an openable cover and connectable to a printed circuit board, etc., of a mating connector in an electrical wiring of an automobile.
A conventional electrical connector having an openable cover is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 10470/82. FIG. 1 shows such a conventional connector which is provided with a plate-like slide cover 2 separate from a housing 1. The slide cover is inserted into insertion grooves 6, provided respectively at opposite sides of the housing 1, from the rear side of the housing so that the slide cover 2 is slidable in forward and backward directions. In order to protect terminals having respective exposed tongues 5 and mounted within an upwardly-opening terminal-receiving chamber 3 provided at a front half of the housing 1, the slide cover 2 is moved forwardly to its closed position indicated by broken lines 2" to cover the tongues 5 from above. For connecting the housing 1 to the mating connector, the slide cover 2 is pushed to its retracted position as indicated by a solid line 2' to open a region above the tongues 5. When the slide cover 2 is in its closed position 2", a projection 18 formed on the rear end of the slide cover 2 is pressed against an underside of an upper wall 7 of the housing 1 to retain the slide cover 2 by the resistance offered by this contact pressure.
In the conventional electrical connector having the above-mentioned openable cover, the retaining force to hold the slide cover 2 in its closed position is not sufficiently high so that the slide cover 2 can easily be retracted when subjected to an external force during transportation or operation, to expose the tongues 5. Thus, the slide cover fails to perform the function of protecting the terminals, so that the tongues 5 may be damaged or deformed.
Further, the slide cover 2 is manually set in its closed position at the attaching of the terminals to the connector in a wire harness assemblage line or the like. Therefore, in the above conventional construction, whether or not the slide cover 2 is properly set in its closed position, has to be judged by the fingertip feeling to the resistance offered by the contact pressure of the projection 18. That is, the proper setting can not be inspected visually, which sometimes results in a problem that the slide cover 2 fails to be properly set.
FIG. 2 shows another conventional connector having an openable cover. In FIG. 2, the same reference numeral as that in FIG. 1 designates the same or the like member. In this connector, a resilient retainer piece 27 of a cantilever type extends forwardly with its fixed end at a rear portion of a housing 1, the retainer piece 27 being disposed centrally of an opening 4 provided at the front half of the housing 1. The resilient retainer piece 27 has a retaining means for locking the housing relative to a mating housing, the retaining means comprising a locking pawl 28 formed at the free end of the retainer piece 27 and engageable in an engaging hole formed in the mating housing, and a depressible projection 29 of an inverted U-shape formed on a rear portion of the upper surface of the resilient retainer piece 27. For connecting the two housings together, a slide cover 2 is held in its retracted position 2', with the resilient retainer piece 27 held in its free condition, and in this condition the housing 1 is pushed into the mating housing. As a result, the locking pawl 28 is snappingly fitted in the engaging hole of the mating housing to lockingly retain this connecting posture. For releasing this connecting posture, the depressible projection 29 of the resilient retainer piece 27 is depressed by the finger or the like, so that the resilient retainer piece 27 is flexed downwardly to release the locking engagement of the locking pawl 28.
In the above conventional electrical connector with the openable cover, when the housing 1 is to be connected to the mating housing, the depressible projection 29 is sometimes unintentionally depressed by the finger to downwardly flex the resilient retainer piece 27 unnecessarily, and the housing 1 is connected to the mating housing in this condition. If the connection is made in such a manner, the feeling of the above-mentioned snapping engagement due to the resiliency of the resilient retainer piece 27 is not obtained, which results in a problem that the resilient retainer piece 27 is not properly engaged due to an inadequate amount of insertion thereof. An operator tends to inadvertently depress the depressible projection 29 at a certain rate, and this can not be avoided because of the manual operation to connect the housings together and of the presence of the inverted U-shaped projection.